Inferring Environmental Knowledge Through Near Field Communication and Data Mining

1. A mobile device comprising: a memory configured to store instructions; and a processor configured to execute the instructions in the memory to: receive one or more consumer product identifiers from one or more near field communication transponders; provide a timestamp for each of the one or more consumer product identifiers, where the timestamp provides information as to when the one or more near field communication transponders was within communication range of the mobile device; determine whether user consent exists for transmitting the one or more consumer product identifiers to a network for data mining purposes; store one of the one or more consumer product identifiers, where the one of the one or more consumer product identifiers corresponds to a product owned by the user; alert the user if when the one of the one or more consumer product identifiers becomes located beyond communication range of the mobile device; determine whether the one or more consumer product identifiers meet a threshold value, where the threshold value equates to a number of product identifiers that allow the network to generate environmental data, associated with the mobile device, based on the one or more consumer product identifiers; and transmit, to the network, the one or more consumer product identifiers for data mining purposes when user consent exists.

2. The mobile device of claim 1 , where the processor is further configured to execute instructions in the memory to: obtain location information corresponding to a location of the mobile device when the one or more near field communication transponders was within communication range of the mobile device; and transmit the location information to the network for the data mining purposes.

3. The mobile device of claim 1 , where the processor is further configured to execute instructions in the memory to: selectively transmit the one or more consumer product identifiers responsive to determine whether the at least one of the one or more consumer product identifiers was previously transmitted to the network.

4. The mobile device of claim 1 , where the processor is further configured to execute instructions in the memory to: obtain product type information corresponding to the one or more consumer product identifiers.

5. The mobile device of claim 1 , where the processor is further configured to execute instructions in the memory to: provide a user identifier to the network for data mining purposes.

6. The mobile device of claim 1 , where the one or more consumer product identifiers correspond to one or more radio frequency identification tags.